Motivating staff in times of change

Barclays Bank, like any other organisation, has to survive and flourish in an increasingly difficult environment. If businesses are to prosper in these circumstances, the commitment and motivation of staff is a key feature. The importance of these factors is recognised in the organisational improvement model of the European Quality Award, which is an important conceptual structure in helping drive organisational change at Barclays, and in which staff satisfaction is a critical variable. This paper focuses mainly on three departments within Barclays which have been undergoing a period of change: Barclays Technology Services; Barclays Home Finance; and PCMS. All three are designed to enable other businesses to get on with running that business, are operations intensive and rely very heavily on IT. All three are also developing similar strategies of staff motivation, in order to continue to compete and to be successful.